MEET OUR TEAM
Our People
It takes great people to grow, condition and deliver superior soybean seed, and we employ the most conscientious, highly skilled, hard working and honest people in the industry. Every day, they drive success for our company, our growers and our customers.
Our extensively trained crop production specialists consult with our growers throughout the year, helping them achieve the highest possible yields through best farming practices. Jack Crumbaugh is right there in the fields with advanced field surveillance technology, ensuring premium product production for our growers and our seed companies. They work closely with our home office personnel, Shelly Fauss, our operations manager and Julie Smith, our grain accountant, making sure all our processes from the field to seed delivery, from crop planning to final payments, are completed with excellence. We employ highly skilled individuals to operate our facility with the meticulous detail our customers deserve, including our shipping department headed by Earl Wright and John Miller with more than 40 years’ combined experience.
Since 1990 our team has been lead by our general manager, Steve Blalock, who has instilled our company values of integrity, excellence and partnership in all our endeavors. We highly value our team members, our partner relationships and our ability to work together to produce the finest soybean seed in the world.
I grew up on our family farm near Miami and went to Slater High School, graduating in 1995. After high school I attended the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, where I graduated in 2000 with a B.S. in Agriculture Business.
I started working at Mid-State Seed in the spring of 2011. After working in production for about a year I moved to the crop production side in 2012. I enjoy working with our companies and all of our growers across the state of Missouri. As I have grown with Mid-State Seed, it still never amazes me how much there is to learn from agriculture and all of the growers I have the privilege of working with across Missouri. Every year I always seem to learn more and am also reminded how interesting Missouri can make farming!
My hope is that I will always continue to learn from the many growers we have, and to be able to pass along all the values and knowledge I have learned to help others.
I grew up outside of a small town, Farina, located in Central Illinois. After High School, I received an athletic scholarship to play volleyball for John A. Logan College located in Southern Illinois from 2009-2012. In 2012 I transferred to Missouri Valley College here in Marshall, Missouri where I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Accounting in 2014.
Soon after graduation, I started working for Mid-State Seed in Quality Assurance and have immersed myself into the agriculture and seed production worlds. I have learned that every year presents new challenges and Mother Nature will always keep you on your toes. The ever-changing challenge and the opportunity to work with growers from all over the state is what I enjoy the most about this line of work. I hope to continue growing in this field and help provide the finest quality of seed for the companies we package for and most importantly, for the farmers that provide for our country.